What freedom means to me, during the pandemic

“Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high

Where knowledge is free

Where the world has not been broken up into fragments

By narrow domestic walls"

These are lines penned by renowned poet Rabindranath Tagore, during a time of bloodshed and captivity. More than a century later, these lines still resonate with the average millennial, for we find ourselves in a crisis never met before.

As Tagore says, we may be bound in our homes, but we are still free men and women in our hearts and minds. The virus may have locked us up in our homes for months, but it definitely hasn't strangled our minds with metal chains. In fact, it has provided plenty of food for thought about the future of our nations.

We have still found a way to regain our lost freedom by letting our minds explore endlessly.

As a citizen, freedom to me means being able to express my thoughts freely. This pandemic has managed to accomplish the impossible - breaking the vicious cycle of our hectic schedules. (This freedom from our previously monotonous lives has let us unleash our forgotten selves.) We have begun to explore new boundaries and in the process, this newfound freedom has helped us rediscover ourselves. More than us human beings, nature finally got a chance to breathe, replenish and heal itself. This has marked this experience with several firsts, of people in Bihar catching a glimpse of the Himalayas from their balconies! It took a deadly pandemic to grab the freedom we knew, to restore that of Nature's.

As a fellow student in the times of COVID-19, freedom has also come in the form of quality education knocking our doors. We students now have the freedom to learn anything we fancy, all with a few clicks. We no longer have to empty our pockets to receive quality education, for it has become available to the average student more than ever before.

Freedom is a birthright. COVID-19 has changed the way we define freedom and perceive life. What we once thought unimaginable is now reality and what we recognized as ordinary reality is now unimaginable. We have learnt to value freedom in a deeper sense.

Although we may have been cooped up in our homes for several frustrating months, it has forced us to ponder over the questions that desperately need an answer - what will our future look like, is freedom what we thought it was, and can we imagine again the life we once led? We have been scrambling for answers, but these questions still remain unanswered, and perhaps will remain so, in the coming future.

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